LAS VEGAS -- Saul "Canelo" Alvarez bristled Tuesday at comments from the Floyd Mayweather camp that the 152-pound limit for their fight was his team's idea.

Later, the CEO of Mayweather's promotional company unapologetically countered that, yes, Alvarez intentionally was placed at a disadvantage and will have to cope with it in Saturday's super welterweight megafight.

Leonard Ellerbe has called Alvarez's management "idiots" for proposing the weight limit, which is two pounds beneath the actual division limit for the 154-pound titles which Mayweather and Alvarez will unify at MGM Grand.

Alvarez, who said he already was at "153, 154," said it was ridiculous to suggest 152 pounds was his idea.

"Why would I give up weight? I'm at 154. I'm the 154-pound champion," Alvarez said. "I've got the size. Why would I give up weight? I wouldn't volunteer just to give up weight.

"But when the negotiations started, they wanted me to go to (147), and I said that's physically impossible, I can't do it. And then, they inched up to 150 and I said impossible, I can't do it, those days are over, I can't make that weight anymore, I've grown. And then they went up to 151."

Finally, Alvarez said, he did offer to go to 152 so the fight could be finalized.

"I'm the one that made the decision to go to 152," he said.

Ellerbe, in a criticism uncommon for him, lashed out at Alvarez's management for offering to cut weight during Showtime's "All-Access" advance programming.

"This is business at the end of the day," Ellerbe said. "If he put himself out there like that, we're going to hold his feet to the fire."

Last year, when Mayweather fought Miguel Cotto at the full 154-pound limit, he said he didn't want a catch weight because he didn't want his opponent to be weakened or have any built-in excuses.

But he is doing exactly that against Alvarez, and Ellerbe said future Mayweather opponents shouldn't expect any better treatment in pre-fight negotiations.

"What it comes down to is he who is on the A-side, he's the one that controls it," Ellerbe said. "That's what being the A-side is, about having leverage. And that's all it is. Listen, we're always going to put every opponent at a disadvantage. That's what's going to happen because Floyd has earned the right to do that.

"We were in that same situation when we fought Oscar (De La Hoya) in 2007 (at 154 pounds, a weight at which Mayweather never had fought). It's no different. And Sugar Ray Leonard was in the same situation with Marvin Hagler (when they fought at Hagler's middleweight limit and Leonard scored a historic 1987 upset). That's what happens when you're on the A-side."

Alvarez said the terms he agreed to weren't the most egregious proposed by the Mayweather camp.

Not only were lighter weights discussed, but Alvarez said the Mayweather camp wanted a day-of-fight weigh-in, after the Friday weigh-in, with a limit on how much weight the fighters could gain overnight.

Alvarez, who could enter the ring at 170 pounds or so by Saturday night, refused.

He said the Mayweather camp attempted to force him into a gag order about the weight but said Ellerbe's criticisms angered him.

"That's why we didn't say anything," Alvarez said. "We haven't said anything, until now. But it's not right that they're lying and that's why I'm speaking out now."

In 2009, Mayweather agreed to fight Juan Manuel Marquez at a 144-pound catch weight but couldn't make it. Mayweather weighed 146 and paid Marquez a $600,000 penalty -- $300,000 per pound, as outlined in their non-title fight contract.

The Mayweather and Alvarez camps are prohibited by contract from disclosing Saturday's per-pound penalty, which is speculated to be as much as $1 million.

"We have a clause, we can't say," Alvarez said.

"It's a lot -- a lot," Ellerbe said.

Alvarez said he wouldn't pay the penalty just to come in at a more comfortable weight, like Mayweather did against Marquez.

"No, I'm a responsible person," he said.

Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Alvarez, said too much is being made out of the weight limit.

Mayweather agreed.

"The promoter just did his job," Mayweather said. "He got his fighter the fight. He's making his biggest pay day. Hats off to the promoter, he did a tremendous job."

Alvarez, however, insisted the idea of fighting at less than 154 pounds never was his.

"I didn't want to give up weight but I had to, to make this fight. And that's why I agreed to it."

-- David Mayo has covered Floyd Mayweather throughout the boxer's career. Contact him at dmayo@mlive.com